Freezer Score!

And more veggies are on the way!

I haven't been posting about every freezer-dive meal we've had, but score a big WIN for the following:
A little bland-colored, but what you see here is peppercorn pork tenderloin (frozen about 6 mos), mashed cauliflower, and corn pudding (both from last year's CSA share). This meal rocked. A lot.

And tonight our CSA share from this year started. Here you can see what wonderful goodies are offered - I never have the patience or skill to take nice pictures like my knitter friend does. Anyhow, tonight we got strawberries (so sweet...mmmmm.), bok choy, radishes, lettuce, and sugar snap peas. Made a nice big salad with lettuce, bok choy, sugar snap peas, walnuts, almonds, and blue (bleu?) cheese. Joe vetoed the dried cranberries. Wuss.

Going through our share is going to be a challenge this year, because it'll all have to be consumed fresh. I have a freezer filled with the bounty from previous years, but all that must get eaten or thrown out rather quickly, as I have a freezer to defrost in about 6 weeks. The reason why isn't quite "Facebook safe" yet, but if you've read this far, chances are that you already know.

So we've got a lot going on: eating healthier, eating cheaper, clearing out the clutter (physical and mental), and still finding time to have some fun. And there is certainly a lot of fun to be had.

656 Days

In 656 days, I will turn 40.

I want my 40th birthday to be a celebration of epic awesomeness.

And so my goal - in 656 days - is to be the healthiest Beth I can be.

Let the fun begin!

Letting Go

Living in the same big house for almost 10 years is a curse. Seriously. When you can go a week without even entering the back half of the house - and when you have a full walk-up third-floor attic - it's damned easy to accumulate stuff. And it's really easy to not let go, even when you're trying to clean things out.

Today I'm swapping out my summer and winter clothes, and I'm also culling a few items that have been stored, basically since we moved here. I'm ashamed to say that I've put on more than a few lbs in the last 10 years, and while my goal is to once again be my "fighting weight," chances are I'm not going to want to wear 10+-year-old clothes when I get there.

But going through these items, it's tough to let go.

The long red slinky dress with the slit up the side that I wore to a dance my senior year at OU. The flirty little dresses I wore when I went to Italy with my mother, dresses that earned me whistles and stares from those nice Italian men (well, they pretty much stare at anyone). That little black dress with all the sparklies that made me feel like I could dance all night.

Then again, there are some memory lanes that should never be walked down again. A pair of jean shorts, color: butter. Yes, butter. A mini skirt that was basically one stretchy black tube. I think I wore that to a concert or two, but those stories are best left off of the internet. Numerous items that should stay in the early nineties, like my turquoise and white "suit" that was a tailored jacket and long shorts. Yup. Even wore it with white tights and tan shoes to the accounting firm.

And so while it's tough letting go, it feels great "digging through the stash" and getting this weight off of my shoulders. Much like my freezer project (which has been slightly on hold but will resume), we're just digging through what we can use and dropping what we can't. Life's too short to hold on to 5-year-old clam sauce and butter-colored jean shorts.

A Lovely Yarn Giveaway!

Please to be looking at this beautiful blog for a contest! For gorgeous yarn! What's not to love?!?

As a side note, the corn chowder survived beautifully, but the corn pasta did not. I should know better by now...cooked pasta does not freeze well...

A New, Frozen Direction

My poor, neglected blog. Either not much going on or too much to sit down and blog about. Since most of my peeps keep up with me on Facebook and Ravelry, I thought I'd turn my blog into a little reflection of a project I've started.

Freezer Diving.

Yes, folks, CSA time is fast approaching, and I've got an ass-load of stuff in the freezers (both the small and large ones are pretty much full). So I'm spending the next weeks/months hauling out meals that are both interesting and boring, wonderful and...trashworthy. Plus it'll get me out of this processed food funk I've been in. When you work long hours, you tend to fix / purchase what's easy, not necessarily what's healthy.

As spring turns to summer, I'll also be working on new recipes and new techniques for the fresh farm produce. I hope by the end of this season I'll be in the midst of creating a healthier lifestyle, as well as learning a few new things. And I hope to find lots more uses for corn.

For today's adventure: corn chowder from July 2009, Linguine with corn and sage (date unknown), mashed cauliflower (2009), and some peaches (2009). We'll see how they survived their storage.

Introducing...ELWOOD!

...or, How Many Cats Do You Have???

Joe and I moved to NY with three cats, adopting a fourth in 2002. Having a big house with plenty of space, the addition of another cat was a no-brainer, especially since all of our cats had basically come to us - either rescued or abandoned. After the rough patch of late 2007 / early 2008 where we lost both Milo and Cosmo, we spent a little while with only two cats, then realized that Otis and Dobby hate each other too much to be on their own. So we adopted Willow.

This didn't work out so well...now we had three cats that pretty much hated each other. There was some playing between Dobby and Willow, but it frequently escalated into hissing. I thought another younger cat would help Willow with her playfulness, so I'd had my eye out for an addition for a while - I just didn't know how it would materialize.

One afternoon, while searching Petfinder, I came across a small rescue organization with one picture, a little marmie-white kitten named "Liam." They would be at PetSmart over the weekend, and I stopped by to check them out. There were several kitties, all of which were beautiful and fun. But I was so unsure about "Liam" - was I just getting another cat on impulse, or was this the cat for us?



I brought him home in early December, and he soon became Elwood. After one day of being quarantined and shy, he quickly owned the house.



The other cats hissed at him, but he just went on his merry way with a 'tude of a king. Within a week, he was cuddling with his surrogate mom, Willow.





The older boys still don't care for him much, but I never could have imagined how positive this would have been with Willow. She's grown up, become a "Mom," and has a play buddy.



We might have four cats, but it's certainly not too much - it's the perfect number for us right now.

So How'd That 2009 Knitting Go?

Remember this list of things to knit in 2009? I think I did pretty well, considering how busy things were this year:

- 6 pair of socks (at least). Five pair completed, two pair in progress
- This shawl, in some groovy Egyptian mercerized cotton I have. Started 11/12/09, 2.5 repeats into pattern (roughly 1/4 of total).
- A scarf pattern that came with my Buckwheat Bridge purchase at Rhinebeck 2007 Started 12/22/09, about 1/5 into pattern.
- Another hedgie for one of Joe's coworkers (who just had a baby) Completed, also made another hedgie for niece Jessica
- Possibly this scarf using this yarn NOT DONE
- A hat and scarf for Joe to replace the really crappy ones I knit him when I was first learning Started the scarf, haven't worked on it in a while
- Another Clapotis, this time for me, out of some awesome yarn I got at Rhinebeck 2008 (the purple stuff at the top of this photo) NOT DONE
- This fish hat. Because how can you not make a fish hat? NOT DONE

Also completed:

Angel Lace Shawl with yak/merino blend



Windy Valley Scarf with Qiviuk



Noro striped scarf



Three baby hats, four pair baby socks/booties








Knucks for Mom



Cigar gloves for Russ



Cool Amelia hat from a kit given by a friend in Toronto



I'm not sure what my project goals are this year, but I'm definitely going to work on "shopping from stash" rather than buy any more yarn. It'll be nice to work the stash size down a bit. Edited to add: my completed projects of 2009 consumed approximately 4,554 yards of yarn - over 2.5 miles! According to Ravelry, I only have another 33 miles to go...

Of course, I have the same old goals of health and making the world a better place - this year I'm going to be very mindful of all of my goals and hopefully simplify my life. Too much clutter - in the stash, in the home, in the soul, and on the body.

Happy 2010 to all!

Something Windy This Way Comes

I grew up knowing the definition of the term "blustery," but I have to say I'd never experienced it until we moved to New York.

When I was a little girl - and once I'd proven to my mother that I was responsible for items that required special care - I received Mom's collection of Walt Disney records. 33rpm records of the classic Disney movies - Snow White, Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Robin Hood (Kristin is still the only other person I know who can quote that movie like I do). These were pretty much the entire movies with sound only - but with lovely picture books behind the album cover. I treasured these records. I'd put on shows in my bedroom - the only audience being my posters of Shaun Cassidy and John Schneider - acting out all the parts and singing every song.

One of these treasured albums was Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. I had my stuffed animals act out the parts (even if they weren't of the A. A. Milne variety). I was deep in the Hundred Acre Wood. I learned the wonderful thing about Tiggers. I danced with the Heffalumps and Woozles. My imagination had no boundaries, and it set the stage for my love of music, reading, and the theater.

And on days like today - when the wind blows branches and trash cans and even street signs askew, I can't help but sing this song to myself and smile...

My Heart is with my Friend.

Dearest Cutie-pie Evan:


We all miss you and your wonderful spirit.

Much love to your amazing family.

Can't Sleep, Can't Wake

I woke this morning in a cold sweat from a very intense dream about living on some hill where Scottish men (yes, in kilts - so yummy) herded goats, sheep, penguins, and sea turtles down through my yard. I also had a ghost in the attic who played the harp. A coworker was asked to try and break into my house, and he did, but he accidentally let the cats out. I was running around the yard, dodging fluffy penguins and happy sea turtles, trying to find my cats, who were chasing a small terrier.

Yes, I'm deeply disturbed. And even worse now, I have an earworm:



And now I'll leave you with three handsome men and some home brew:

Another Mouse has Come and Gone...

...and possibly another went to the Big Cheese in the Sky.

Cooling temperatures mean mousing season at the Weismann Home for Wayward Animals. With an old, drafty home comes lots of places for mouse entry, especially when one's pantry is directly over the edge of the dirt basement. This is why all pasta, rice, flour, sugar, beans, soup mix, chocolate, raisins, cocoa mix, nuts, etc are housed in sturdy Rubbermaid containers. I lost an entire box of WeightWatchers Dark Raspberry snack bars to those fuckers.

This is also why Dobby likes to hang out in the pantry. For a cat with no front claws, he is one hell of a mouser. He catches, tortures, then shows off his trophy. Fortunately, the cats don't go for eating them. I can deal with disposing of an intact mouse.

The other morning, Dobby was making some shifty moves around our TV cabinet in the bedroom. Lo and behold, he'd cornered a mouse. He most likely brought it up from the kitchen to show off, then dropped it and "lost" it for a bit. Watching the three cats watch a mouse run around the bedroom was entertaining but without purpose. Once Dobby finally caught it again, he presented it to Joe. On the bed. And the little guy was still alive.

Fortunately, we're not shy here. Joe picked the poor feller up, and we took it outside. It seemed to be in shock, but not injured, so I tucked him into a little cozy spot in the yard and let nature decide the fate.

This morning, while Joe was working on his masterful heat-duct-cover-up about which he'll post soon, The Dobbster left a nice dead mousy present at the foot of our kitchen stairs. If it was the same mouse as earlier this week, then the mouse was an idiot and deserved his fate.

Enough talk about vermin. How about a pretty picture of yarn? Here's the first 10 rows of Muir, in Blue Heron cotton:


I'm thinking this cold, dreary weekend will be bursts of productivity interrupted by hours of pleasant knitting.

Status

After a somewhat frozen mid-October, we're just barely chilly here in November. The trees are mostly bare, and the groundhog is snuggling into his hole under the porch. This first week of November has been wonderful. After two months of preparing for and having parties, family visiting, and wonderful local festivals, it's nice to have a breather. Last weekend was devoted to catching up some of my Ravelry project photos, and this weekend I'll be cleaning out my car.

Yes, my beloved Hyundai (pictured below, under snow drifts), is ready to go to a new home. She was our post-9/11-help-the-economy purchase, and she's been a trooper. After 102,000 miles she's still going strong, but Joe wants a new car for his constant travel, which means I get his old one (Toyota Matrix - nice upgrade for me). Since winter is coming soon - and I'll be mostly driving the truck anyway - we figured this would be a good time to sell it so we can finish paying off the Toyota before spring and a new car payment starts.


Alas, sweet beater car, you served me well.

On other topics, I've been good with working out - every morning except this morning, which I'll make up for with a nice long walk tomorrow. I also finished knitting my shawl (Rav link here), so I'll be blocking it this weekend.

After I'm done saying goodbye to my car.

Breaking The Silence

Actually, there's nothing that's prevented me from posting anything, other than lack of motivation. We had a wonderful few months: General Montgomery Day, Mom visiting during NYS Sheep & Wool Festival...a good many pictures taken, most of yarn and beer. Work was chaotic at best during August/September, but now things are finally calming down - two months later - and I think I should get back to blogging again, hopefully a little less yarn-centric than before.

Not only have I not been blogging, but I haven't been checking out others' blogs either. Between Facebook and Ravelry I feel like I'm spending enough time online. But I also miss "putting things out there" once in a while.

A lot of folks choose November as a time to get things done: did you know that it's National Novel Writing Month? Also, there's a revolving National Blog Posting Month. I'm not sure that I could commit to anything each day (particularly since I'm starting on Nov 4th), but here's a list of things that are important to me - thing that I'm committing to do by the end of November:

Health:
- Finally make appts with various docs and dentist. I'm not far off schedule, but this is a good time as any, especially since my health insurance will be changing in January. GP (in the process of getting a new one), eye doc, dentist, and doc for the girly bits. Maybe TMI...
- Work out every day. I'm doing pretty good on that one. Working on a C25K, slowly but surely.

House:
- Get the laundry room ready for repairs. Basically means move everything out of it (or, with the appliances, at least move away from walls), so Joe can repair the exterior siding (there's a leak or two), then replace the drywall, then we can paint and put up the border I bought about 6 years ago. Many thanks to Mom for pulling the godawful wallpaper down while she visited us for a couple of weeks.
- Finally order the damn shade for the master bath.

Knitting:
- Finish the yak shawl (not difficult - binding off now)
- Finish Windy Valley scarf (about 75% done)
- Finish garter rib socks (about 85% done)
- Get 1/3 way through Muir (just got the needles for it)
- Bonus points if I finish my Froot Loop socks and don't cast on for anything else
- Do. Not. Buy. More. Yarn.

Flashin' the Stash

While cleaning up the guest room yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to "air out" the stash. Since Joe had given me a few extra containers, I knew I needed to reorganize to make the best use of the new space. I had most of my sock yarn in one drawer-thingy, a good bit of handspun/special yarn in another, and then a bunch of other containers with random combinations of recent purchases.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to really look at what I had. And so now, I give you...my sock stash (enough for 40 pairs):


And here's my entire stash...

While some of you might think, "Jeez girl - you need to get some professional help - you're bordering on becoming a hoarder," I guarantee you that at least 75% of my knitting friends will look at this and think, "That's not a stash - that's just dipping a toe into your hobby - come over to my house some time and see what a stash can become."

Regardless, I'm on a strict yarn diet with limited Rhinebeck purchases this year. Too bad I have this job thing. I'd really love to just knit for a while. A long while.

A Few Boundaries

Up until recently, I've thought of my blog as a curious self-indulgence that was mostly filled with home projects and yarn. I've also used it to vent.

I now have to be extremely careful how searchable my vents can be. It's sad. I'm a person with thoughts and ideas. And now I'm a person who feels that some things are very unsafe.

I might continue to blog on strictly harmless things, but for the time being I'm lying low.

Thanks for reading - your comments are fun, cathartic, and make me feel loved.

Wide Awake at 4AM

It's hot. The cats are restless. I wake up to get some water, then suddenly I have random thoughts shooting through my haze of sleepiness...

Don't forget cat food. Need to make a dessert for Tiombe. Find Joe's court notice and put it on the desk so he can find it. That shawl pattern I just bought - double check the yardage needed vs what I have. Check Mom's flight - I think it might be the same day as Jenn's trip to Stitches East. Holy shit, how have I added 39 skeins to the stash this year - and how am I ever going to knit it all? Work is about to get crazy busy. Don't forget cat food.

I figure I'll just jot down a few things so I can let my brain go back to sleep. But of course I can find no writing instruments in the bedroom. Go downstairs, feed the cats, figure I might as well get some of these things done, and here I am.

I think I finally may be able to get back to sleep, now that I have less than an hour before I have to wake up...

Random Thoughts and Memories

Wow - didn't realize this would be my 400th post. I'm not good with the blogging these days (nor are many of my blogging friends, I realize) - mostly due to Facebook, Ravelry, Twitter...time sucks that have bumped blogging out of the way.

So rather than the "hey - look what we did" kinds of posts I've done in the past - which usually involve pictures and long stories - I'm going to change this over to more of an online thought journal. It probably won't be interesting to most, but every blogger has a bit of "I need to tell the world this right now" in them, and so it is with me.

The death of John Hughes yesterday left me feeling a bit empty. I don't recall exactly when I first saw some of his movies - even though they were made when I was in middle and high school, I'm not sure I watched them when they came out. I was into more of the horror genre at that time, and for the most part I don't remember any movies I watched unless there was something important going on at the time. I recall watching Hellraiser (with Pam?) while Katie watched The Princess Bride - unwise choice on my part, even though I'm still a Pinhead fan. I remember watching some really god-awful movies on awkward dates. I remember the first time I saw Brad Pitt on the screen - at the Dollar Theater on Buford Highway, watching Thelma and Louise.

John Hughes's films, however, just became part of my life. I don't know when or how it began, but they were just "always there." They are the go-to films in our home - or when we're on the road. They really are about who we were as teens / young adults. To quote The Breakfast Club, we knew that "each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal."

Rest in peace, sweet man.

And now, I give you one of the funniest scenes from the genius that was John Hughes (apologies for the poor recording):

For Pammy...

...and all our "suffering..."



I will never forget the neverending version: DAHdahdahdah DAHdahdahdah DAHdahdahdah DAHdahdahdah...I still hear that in my nightmares... :) Love you, sweetie!!!

Hot Damn!

Check this out...

I would say I never win anything, but the lovely Cambria would totally call me out on that.

Nothing else exciting going on. Work, knitting, drinking, sleeping...oooh look at the pretty yarn I got in a recent swap!

That's about it, folks. When you're one stereotype away from being The Crazy Cat Lady, there's not much else going on...

Bad Blogger, Tired Blogger

Just got back from a wonderful vacation, but I can't post pictures until I have clean clothes and opened mail. Here's a little something lovely I found online during lunch today...